Number of Adult Smokers Unchanged, CDC Reports

TOBACCO January 1995

The annual smoking survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the number of adult smokers remained relatively unchanged between 1992 and 1993 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, "Cigarette Smoking Among Adults -- United States, 1993," Dec. 23, 1994, p. 1).

While cigarette smoking declined significantly between 1965 and 1990 (from 42.4% to 25.5% of those polled responding that they were current smokers), this data shows that drop may have levelled off.

"We're very concerned that our progress among adults will stall," said Michael Eriksen, director of the Office on Smoking and Health for the CDC ("Survey Shows Cigarette Use Down For Adults," Dallas Daily Chronicle, Jan. 10, 1995, p. 5B).

In 1993, the report estimates that 46 million U.S. adults were current smokers. 32 million people reported that they would like to quit smoking. Women were most likely to say they wanted to quit (72.2% of women smokers), while people over 65 were least likely to want to quit (49.9% of that age group).

[To obtain a copy of this report, contact the CDC Public Health Service at Mail Stop K-50, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia, 30333, 404-488-5705.]